I Done This Support Cheers to mistakes! Here’s the full quote about making mistakes from the excellent Neil Gaiman’s blog, totally worth reading before you get back to doing: Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, … Read more
NEWS FLASH: Everybody does not hate Mondays! A recent Gallup poll found that workers who are engaged feel almost as good on the weekdays as they do on the weekends! Plus, learning and interestingness peaks for these happy, engaged workers during the workweek. In turn, they are more likely to be productive. The bad news? Only … Read more
Have a lovely weekend folks! And here’s a round-up of the best stuff we’ve shared on our blog, Twitter, and Facebook: 17 women startup leaders name their role models. The significance of company culture. What do successful people do the first hour of their day? Spend more time in the bathroom.
You also have to have perseverance – and maybe that’s the hardest thing, to persevere and to believe that what you’re doing is worth doing – and to do it, rather than talking about doing it.
Maira Kalman talks to 99u about work and overcoming the challenges of the creative process. Her daily routine expressly involves avoiding work: “Avoiding work is the way to focus my mind.” Kalman’s wisdom is endless.
The Freedom Experiment lists 55 ways to take care of yourself when the going gets busy. There are many gems but we especially liked this one about remembering to schedule me-time and honoring it: To make your life less chaotic, it’s a good practice to keep a planner. Make sure you write down every single … Read more
We forget that mastery is something human beings seek because we’re human beings. We like to get better at stuff because it’s inherently satisfying.
Daniel Pink, writing for the Washington Post, argues that we need more renewable motivation. How do we create this? Engage your employees, not by managing them but granting them autonomy.
We’re not mice on treadmills with little carrots being dangled in front of us all the time. Sometimes we are. There’s no question about that. But in the workplace, as people are doing more complicated things, the carrot-and-stick approach doesn’t work.
What’s frustrating, or ought to be frustrating, to individuals in companies and shareholders as well is that when we see these carrot-and-stick motivators demonstrably fail before our eyes – when we see them fail in organizations right before our very eyes – our response isn’t to say: “Man, those carrot-and-stick motivators failed again. Let’s try something new.” It’s, “Man, those carrot-and-stick motivators failed again. Looks like we need more carrots. Looks like we need sharper sticks.” And it’s taking us down a fundamentally misguided path.
A lot has been said about the scarcity of women leaders in the tech startup world. As the lone woman in a tech startup company*, it’s a subject that fascinates me both personally and professionally.
Working with iDoneThis, I have long noticed that there are vastly more men than women in the startup world. Often, the individuals who can exert great influence over your startup’s future are men. The people you network with, get advice from, collaborate with and befriend are also men. And once in a while, the people you have to say no to, who you have to argue with or tell something they don’t want to hear, are also men.
This intimidates me, but I’m not entirely sure why. I’m not intimidated by law, medicine, corporate business, or any other traditionally male-dominated career paths. Could it be that I never had any role models in tech? I decided to ask leading women in the tech startup world this simple question:
I got an immediate flood of responses from CEOs and founders who were eager to applaud and promote other women startup leaders. Their responses were personal, insightful and full of pride at other women’s achievements.
Instead of procrastinating away on the internets, be productive toward something else — including taking care of yourself!
I learned that sharks sleep parts of their brain, like rolling blackouts; they can’t fall asleep because they can’t stop moving or they’ll suffocate. So they sleep sections of their brain at a time. So I do kind of a version of that, where I shut down brain centers. I literally tell myself, “Don’t logistically problem-solve for the next three hours, but you can talk to folks. Driving my kid home from school—don’t think about all the professional things you have to do.
Louis C.K., on how he manages his crazy busy life, in an interview with the A.V. Club. Shark-y brain sleep it is!
Here’s to moving forward day by day!